Don't Waste Glass in Your Next Drop

Posted on September 18, 2015

It's always heartbreaking to cut the rim off of your drop, turning all that beautiful glass into scrap. Instead of using colored glass that you've taken time to design, try using clear. Clear is the least expensive glass, and we all have lots of clear scrap. Next time you plan a drop, try this:

Measure the inside square or circle of your drop ring. Design your project so that it is 1" wider than the inside size. Place your drop ring on a piece of thinfire sitting on the kiln shelf you plan to use to fuse your blank. Trace around the outer and inner rings onto the thinfire. Build a dam lined with ⅛" fiber paper around the outer rim. Don't go over the line. When it comes time to drop your form, you don't want the glass bigger than your ring. Place your design over the tracing of the inner ring. Center as best you can. Gather your clear scrap. Start nipping pieces to fit between your designed glass and the dam. Fill until you reach your desired thickness. You don't have to worry about cleaning the clear. It will be cut off. Your scrap will probably be piled a bit higher than your design to make up for the gaps in the scrap pieces. If clear overlaps the edges of your design, don't worry. That will be on the rim and will be discarded. Fire! Place the fired 'blank' on your drop ring and drop!

Now, when you cut off the rim, you are cutting off clear scrap, not the colored rim of a design you worked hard on. As a bonus, there's always a bit of color left on your cut offs. Nip these off and use them for frit balls!

Supplies mentioned in this post: